Massachusetts daycare costs highest of any state, second only to Washington, D.C.

Daycare in Massachusetts is more expensive than any state in the nation.

For both infant and preschool children, daycare cost in the Bay State tops even New York state, and is among the top 10 as a percentage of annual income.

That’s according to a report, “Parents and the High Cost of Child Care,” published by Child Care Aware of America. The organization, formerly known as NACCRA, is a service and advocacy nonprofit based in the Washington area.

The report finds the average daycare cost for full-time infant care in a daycare center in Massachusetts in 2011 was $14,980, more than any other state. (The next highest is New York state, with an average annual cost of $14,009.)

Only in the federal district of Washington do parents pay more, a whopping $20,178. The Massachusetts figure is 14.2 percent of the median annual income for a two-parent family here ($105,537 in 2008 through 2010). That’s the ninth highest percentage in the country, according to the report.

Preschool-age daycare, measured in the report as the average full-time daycare center cost for a four-year-old, costs less but here Massachusetts is still the priciest state in the country for child care, and relative to income again ranks among the top 10.

The average annual cost for a preschooler in a daycare center, full time, was $11,669 in Massachusetts in 2011. That’s more than any other state, save the District, and relatively speaking puts the Bay State sixth in daycare affordability as a percentage of median income.